Tuesday, October 5, 2010

e-terview with Hernan Khourian

In June of 2010 I had the opportunity to live in La Plata, Argentina, make art and meet local artists. One such encounter led me to video artist Hernan Khourian, who, in addition to exhibiting his videos around the world, is also a professor of video art at the Universidad Nacional de La Plata, the Universidad Nacional de Lanús and the Universidad del Cine. Utilizing a documentary-like approach, Khourian beautifully composes poetic collages of time, in time, that are simultaneously mesmerizing and disturbing, verging on the personal and yet resonating to broad perspectives. To view samples of his works please visit the link at the end of the page. This is e-terview's first bilingual interview *.

When did you begin working with video? Why did you choose this medium?Empecé a trabajar en video en primer año de la Universidad, porque todo era mucho más flexible y esto me permitió tener una mayor libertad e independencia para indagar cuestiones artísticas.
I started working in video on my first year in college, because it was much more flexible and that allowed me a greater freedom and independence to pose artistic questions.

Though video refers to the apparatus that you use for me creation of your works, the end result could well fit into experimental cinema and even experimental documentary film. Could you address any distinctions between these categories and your work? Are they important? Where do you place your work within a broader video art practice (if at all)?Nunca me preocuparon las categorías, porque siempre me he esforzado por tratar de mantenerme al margen de esas clasificaciones. La idea es que hay algo a descubrir, un desafío que siempre queda abierto por más que lo querremos dominar y encasillar, obligándonos a encontrar sus respectivas alternativas. Además, utilizo los procesos creativos para darle cierta indeterminación a las situaciones y a las acciones cierta libertad, permitir a los espectadores imaginar las otras dimensiones posibles.
Categories never concern me because I always strive to stay on the margins of classifications. My approach is that there is something to be found, a challenge that stays open no matter how hard we try to dominate and label it, forcing us to find respective alternatives. In addition, I use the creative process to imbue some uncertainty to some situations and freedom to certain actions, allowing viewers to imagine other posible dimensions.

The three works that I watched, Norberto's Bedsheets (2003), Puna (2006), and Spleen or Missing or Nonetheless (2007), could be categorized a video portraits; the first a portrait of its subject (and to some extent the institution he lives in), the second of a region and its people, and the last of an apartment and yourself. Are these areas you specifically aim to address or do they naturally occur in your work? Por lo general empiezo un proyecto pensándolo geográficamente, territorialmente. Tengo un deseo de descubrir algo lejano o desconocido, explorar, deambular perdidamente las zonas escogidas como en Áreas pero también en Esplín o Errar o Sin Embargo. En Puna obviament, está más claro porque es una región en el norte de Argentina. Pero Las Sábanas de Norberto, que es un retrato de un discapacitado, lo pensaba también como un recorrido espacial, un retrato del espacio (el hospital) que contenía una posible historia de sensaciones de Norberto y su imaginario. Por eso el sentido se fuerza en torno a las presencias, aunque también a las ausencias: como ver personajes en los paisajes o paisajes en las personajes.
Usually I start a project thinking geographically, territorially. I have a desire to discover something distant or unknown, to explore, to wander aimlessly in chosen locations, as in Areas (2000) but also in Esplín o Errar o Sin Embargo. In Puna this is obviously clearer, because this is a region in northern Argentina. But in Norberto’s Bedsheets, which is a portrait of a disabled person, I thought also as a space journey, a portrait of a space (the hospital) that contained a possible history for Norberto's feelings and his imaginary. Therefore meaning surrounds both presences and absences: like seeing characters in the landscape, or landscapes in characters.

Given the fluid nature of your works, how do you begin working on a project? No sé bien como funciona, pero lo que sí creo que los proyectos que más me han hecho crecer son los que respiran una necesidad. En Las Sábanas de Norberto, lo que de alguna manera latía en el proyecto era que por primera vez iba a trabajar sobre un retrato, pero más que nada sobre un relato en donde la utilización de la palabra iba a tener un peso muy relevante por primera vez. La dación de sentido pasó a combinarse potencialmente entre palabra e imagen. En este video existe un diálogo secreto y no tanto entre el hilo invisible abierto tendido hacia lo poético, lo indecible; y un hilo de lo visible que se aferra y hace sentido desatándose hacia algún lugar en apariencia más cercano.
I don’t know exactly how it works, but I believe the projects that make me grow most are the ones that breathe a necessity. In Norberto’s Bedsheets what somehow happened was that at first I went to work on a portrait, but a narrative that utilized words took on a heavier weight for the first time. Meaning began to potentially combine with word and image. In this video there is a secret dialogue and still an invisible thread opened and extended toward the poetic, the unspeakable; and a visible thread that clungs and made sense by unraveling itself somewhere in appearance, nearby.

How do you negotiate your integrity as an artist (meaning what and how you choose to present), with potential ethical issues of (mis)representing your subjects?Mi tesis Áreas es del año 2000 y mi último trabajo, Memoria es de 2010. Esos 10 años fueron recorridos navegado (me) por mis ejercicios de indagación de lo poético, del paso del tiempo, de la articulación del azar, del plano. Pero por encima de todo, sobre la observación y la superficie de lo real, explorando su duración, transparencia, opacidad y su inevitable ética estética. Toda obra implica elecciones, exigencia y compromiso por parte de su creador. Pero cada vez más rescato la capacidad asociativa, intuitiva y por momentos crítica de una misma realidad. Y quizá, lo indeterminado, siempre termina teniendo de alguna manera un peso cada vez mayor en mis videos, y si se quiere hay algo en ellos que subyace y que tiene que ver con suspender el sentido jugando en el límite de lo (re) presentado. Pero en definitiva no creo que las cosas se puedan separar tan fácilmente, es más una zona de contagio.
My thesis Áreas is from 2000 and my last work Memoria is from 2010. Those 10 years passed navigated (me) through my inquiries into the poetic, the passage of time, the articulation of chance, of the plan, but above all, on the observation and the surface of reality, exploring its duration, transparency, opacity and its inevitable ethical aesthetics. Every work implies choices, demands and commitment from its creator. But more and more I undertake the associative capacity, intuitive and at times critical of the same reality. And perhaps, the indeterminate, always somehow ends up with an increasing weight in my videos, and if you want something behind them that has to do with the suspension of belief on the (re) presented. But definitely I do not think that things can be separated so easily, it's more of contamination zone.

There is a specific syntax to your video works; the manipulation of speed, the juxtaposition of images and the layering of audio is present. One other reoccurring strategy is the sudden cut to black. Could you speak about that? What do these cut to black mean or symbolize to you? Is that a carrying pattern or in each project it operates differently?Hay algo en el circuito de intercambio simbólico o informacional que siempre me ha interesado: que es esta idea de crecimiento de lo insignificante, de lo obtuso, lo trivial, y lo que se diluye en lo evanescente, suspendiendo el sentido, volviéndolo intervalo. Me interesa incomodar o problematizar los puntos de vistas del espectador desde distintos recursos (como por ejemplo las interrupciones en blanco o negro). Estos recursos me ayudan a darle lugar a cierta reflexión en su imaginario.
There is something in the cycle of symbolic/informational exchange that has always interested me: this notion of expanding the insignificant, the obtuse, the trivial, and what is diluted in the evanescent, suspending the meaning, transforming it into interval. I want to bother or problematize the perspective of the audience through these specific means (such as interruptions in white or black). These strategies help me to place a certain reflection into your imagination.

Beauty is usually not associated with video, but you manage to create strikingly beautiful images through the use of light and composition. What is the role of beauty in your work?El punto de partida de Puna fue hacer un trabajo sobre la luz en esa región, que es el lugar del planeta en el cual más luz irradia el sol. La contemplación del paisaje (como los blancos en Las Sábanas de Norberto), su extraña luminosidad. En principio, creo interesante en mis trabajos forzar las lecturas y dejar solas a esas imágenes, entrar en su fantasmagoría hacia su composición, hacia sus sentidos. Pero creo que lo que se ve o lee en algunos de mis videos como bellos, tiene que ver con hallar otra dimensión temporal y visual encontrando tajos, intersticios en las realidades para dejar que ellas depositen en nosotros esa desviación de mundo. Lo que circula en mis trabajos es la mirada. Controlando las relaciones pero buscando siempre el azar, lo imprevisible, lo que está vivo y se nos escapa. Lo que se nos resiste siempre. Entonces, entre la evidencia de los acontecimientos y su apariencia, deviene una tensión entre descripción y narración. Un conflicto entre lo representativo y lo predicativo, aquello que se da a ver y aquello que se quiere decir o hacer pensar-sentir.
The starting point of Puna was doing a work on the light in that region, which is the site of the planet where the sun shines most light. The contemplation of the landscape (like in Norberto’s Bedsheets), its strange brightness.
In principle, I find interesting in my work to force readings and leave alone those images, entering their phantasmagoria created a composition, made senses. But I think what you see or read on some of my videos as beautiful, has to do with finding another dimension of time and finding visual cuts, cracks in the realities that let them point to us a detour from the world. What circulates in my work is the gaze. Controlling relationships but always seeking chance, the unpredictable, which is alive but escapes us. What always resists. Therefore, between the evidence of events and their appearance, a tension between description and narration occurs. A conflict between the representational and predicative, what is seen and what is told or done, to think-feel.

In Puna there is only one instance where text is translated, and that is the writing on the graffiti/cartoon of the natives and the colonizers found in situ, that I will paraphrase as "his name is Columbus and he says he is discovering us". Again there is the danger of romanticizing or exotifying the other, but with this translation and the showing of the tourists (as well as the second text in the piece, the ending credits where you mention there is no grant funding for your work), I get the impression you want to highlight the performative position of the native. Is that the case? And are you in any way interested in "anthropophagy"?Toda imagen altera y secciona un espacio-tiempo. Quizá solo sea posible captar un gesto y a veces muy insignificante, clasificarlo, ordenarlo, mutarlo, vigilarlo. En todo caso esto es Foucault y la “Microfísica” del poder moderno, la cámara-mirada ejerce su control por momentos rechazando lo viviente. Digamos que lo que circula en Áreas pero también en Puna es la mirada, controlando la relación en el espacio entre las partes (cámara, realizador, sujetos) haciéndose patente en su propia auto puesta en imagen (escena) enfatizada por el trabajo hecho con el (des) encuadre, en el sentido que tiene para Bonitzer como desplazamiento del ángulo, excentricidad del punto de vista, focalizando zonas muertas, vacías, estimulando según el autor cierta ironía y sadismo.
Every image alters and sections a space-time. Perhaps it is only possible to capture a gesture, and sometimes very insignificantly, classify it, sort it, change it, silence it, watch it. In any case this is Foucault and the "Microphysics" of modern power, the camera-eye/gaze asserting its control, at times rejecting the living. Let's say that what circulates in Areas but also in Puna is the gaze, controlling the relationship amongst parts in space (camera, director, subject) making evident in its own self-imposition as picture (scene) emphasized by the work done with the (un) frame, in the Bonitzer sense of the displacement of the angle, the eccentricity of the point of view, focusing on dead zones, empty, stimulating according to the author a certain irony and sadism.

This performative position is also noticeable by your presence in the videos. There is a playfulness, a child-like curiosity in your works, where you seem to be experimenting with the video camera to see how things look when videotaped. This stance is very akin or in line with early video art practices in the U.S.. Early Bill Viola automatically comes to mind, specially in Spleen (...). What have been some of your influences, as far as artists? In literature, has magic realism a place in your work as well?No tengo ninguna influencia cuantificable, o en todo caso estas siempre llegan tarde, cuando ya no las necesito tanto. Pero sí puedo hablar de una influencia buscada, que está más ligada a tener una experiencia de mundo, un encuentro vivencial con lo diferente y heterogéneo.
I don't have any quantifiable influence, in any case these always arrive late, when they are not needed much. But I can speak of a sought-after influence, that is connected to having an experience of the world, a lived encounter with the different and the heterogeneous.

Spleen (...) was done during an art residency in Paris, France. It has a claustrophobic or isolating feeling to it (as all scenes are shot indoors, and any exterior imagery is seen through windows - actual or computer). Was that in any way a parallel to your experience there? Was that related in any way to language barriers?En realidad en Esplín o Errar o Sin Embargo transformé el desvío situacionista por las calles de la ciudad y el flânerie de Baudelaire por el vagabundeo incesante por mi espacio íntimo-privado en el mismo atelier.Quería relacionarme directamente con cierto efecto de encapsulamiento, necesario para capturar las vicisitudes y los procesos de la puesta del yo en situación.
Actually in Esplín o Errar o Sin Embargo, I transformed the Situationist derive through the streets of the city and the flânerie of Baudelaire through incessant wandering within my intimate-private space in the same studio.
I wanted to directly interact with certain effect of encapsulation, which was necessary to capture the vicissitudes and the processes of placing the self in a situation.